I'm sorry it took me so long to update this.

She was being lazy.

Shut it, Hayate.

My Sister is Missing

Chapter 7: Overcast

Neji sat at his desk, looking out the window. Hinata was out making her rounds, and Hanabi was in the backyard practicing with her staff. The only sounds were the younger's panting and the swish of wood through air. In fact, you couldn't even hear children playing like you usually could at this hour. Everything was eerily quiet. Below, the swishing stopped, so Neji could only assume that his younger cousin had noticed as well. Looking down, their eyes met, and Hanabi's were worried. The young prodigy nodded once, then hurried downstairs.

When you're trained as a ninja since birth, you tend to become acutely aware of your suroundings at all times. Constant Vigilence is something instilled in a child of the Hyuuga house since birth. So, the lack of normal sounds had made quite a few uneasy. Neji and Hanabi moved quickly through the house, gathering any items they thought that they would need if something happened. Since early that morning, the entire area had been put on high alert. That meant many things, one of which was that if anything seemed out of the ordinary, prepare for all hell to break loose. All those who were unable to fight were to prepare to evacuate if needed, and all ninja were ordered to be combat ready and willing to march into battle. In less than ten minutes, the two cousins were crouched on the roof, looking towards the edge of the district.

"...It's so quiet." Hanabi said quietly after a moment of silence. A cold wind blew, ruffling her skirt and long hair. Neji paused to push a few strands of hair out of his face before answering.

"That's why we're here, Hanabi-sama. Something was out of the ordinary, so we did as your sister ordered and prepared ourselves." The younger of the two sat down, pulling her knees to her chest.

"I know that." The silence settled in again, and both resumed watching for anything potentially dangerous. "When do you think Oneechan will be back?" Neji glanced at his little cousin from the corner of his eyes. She was still just a kid in many ways. Her mother died when she was only a year old, from another sound raid, and Hinata was the closest thing to a mother that she had anymore. Hanabi didn't want to lose something like that again, even if she couldn't really remember the first time. He sighed.

"I can't say for sure when. But I can say for certain that she will be back." Neji answered. Hanabi looked at her older cousin, and brother in so many ways, in shock. Then she smiled, turning back to her portion of the watch.

------

Hinata moved around the Cloud nin in a slow, cautious circle, being careful not to turn her back to him. Not that that was hard. He was mirroring her every movement, watching the hand that rested on her katana amusedly.

"Does the little Hime think she can beat me with her shiny sword?" He mocked, crossing his arms.

"You killed two of my people. Whether you are more powerful than me or not, I owe it to them to try." The heiress answered, stopping her circle as soon as she reached the look-out post, with the bodies. She activated her Byakugan, and to her relief, noted that the gaurds' eyes were still in their sockets. The Cloud must've been about to take them, then. Looks like I got here just in time. As if reading her thoughts, the Cloud nin's grin widened and he shot towards her, brandishing a kunai. Hinata whipped out her sword to block, not daring to move from her fallen comrades.

"Scared, girly?" He taunted, pressing harder against her. Hinata kicked at the Cloud nin's legs, forcing him to move back and away from the heiress.

"That would not be my choice word for the moment." The blue-haired girl answered.

"Then what would it be?" The Cloud lunged again, this time forcing Hinata to jump aside. Instead of going after the bodies like she had assumed he would, the man jumped after her. After a few minutes of dodging and steel-on-steel, they once again found themselves in a stalemate. They broke apart, and the deadly dance began again.

"Upset. Angry. Murderous. Furious. Take your pick." Each word was accented with a blow from the heiress' katana. The black-haired cloud nin laughed again.

"You don't look murderous, little Hime. Why don't you show me just how furious you are!" He bellowed, attacking again. Hinata weaved in and out of his blows, sometimes matching them, and others just moving.

"Show you?" She asked, and in the blink of an eye the Cloud-nin found himself pinned to the wall through the stomach with the heiress' 'shiny sword'. "No wonder you cloud nin want our Byakugon. You're obviously blind." The man choked, caughing up blood which ended up on Hinata. "Know this before you die. No matter what you do, no matter how fast and hard you come at us, we will never give you our Byakugon. And I swear to you that with every breath in my body, I will protect my people. Even if I suddenly found our roles reversed here, and I was pinned to the wall, I would rip out of your hold and take you to hell with me. You, however, have no chance to do so." The Cloud took another shaky breath, and grabbed the blade. Hinata dragged the blade up, cutting his upper-body in half. "As it is, say hello to the devil for me." The heiress stepped back, letting the body fall with a thud to the ground.

"Hinata-sama!" Said girl turned towards the voice, watching as two gaurds landed in a crouched position at the same hole that she had come through. The taller man of the two spoke again. "What happened here?"

"A Cloud nin decided that he would try and take the Byakugon for his master. You can guess what happened from there." The men eyed the bloody corpse near the window in distaste. "Would you please prepare these gaurds to be delivered to their families; then burn the Cloud. He deserves nothing more." The gaurds set about their work, and Hinata stormed from the building with a last glare at the aformentioned Cloud nin.

-----

Sasuke stepped from his house to take a walk with the hope that the fresh air would clear his head. Still, that conversation was bothering him, and he couldn't figure it out. Why would Hinata and Anko say something like that? Better yet, had they even said it? That much he was almost sure of; they had been talking. He wasn't so delusional that he could hear his teacher and friend talk out of the blue about something so absurd. Besides, he didn't think he could make that up. He didn't have Naruto's imagination, after all.

The teen sighed, going over every possible explanation in his head. None of them really made sense, though, so half an hour later he lifted his head to look around. He had wandered into an area that he wasn't very familiar with, which was just what he needed at the moment. Great. Now I'm lost. Flippin' awesome. Sasuke looked around himself, continuing on slowly. There weren't very many people about, which was odd for this hour. Where were the kids running around, and the moms talking over fences while watering their gardens? Ah, there's a few...

Three children had just run out of one of the houses to his left. One, the apparent leader, was a boy of about 12 years old. He had brown hair and matching eyes, and was wearing a rediculously long blue scarf. The next one out the door was an orange-haired girl who wore mostly pink. The last of the trio was another brown-haired boy who wore a dark blue turtle-neck and had glasses.

"Come on, hurry up! Does HIgh Alert mean anything to you two?!" The scarf-wearing boy cried over his shoulder. Sasuke found it to be a bit of a wonder that he didn't trip over the thing.

"Of course it does, Konohamaru! I still don't get why we're sprinting through the streets, though!" The girl replied. Huffing, the first boy slid to a stop and turned to look at the others about 10 feet away from Sasuke.

"Look around. Do you see anything out of place?" The two looked at eachother, and then let their eyes wander. Sasuke bent to tie his shoe, hoping to divert attention from himself. It worked decently.

"There aren't many people about." The girl commented.

"And there's no animals, either. Not even Yamaka-san's cat." The glasses-clad boy added. Konohamaru nodded.

"See? This is exactly the kind of thing we're supposed to be watching out for. You missed something else, though." He waited a minute, but neither answered. "Hinata-neechan hasn't come by on her rounds yet. She's usually here at least 15 minutes ago. Something probably happened." At this Sasuke stood slowly. Hinata? She was involved in the strange neighborhood too?! This had gone far enough for him.

"Oi, Kid." He said, to which the trio jumped and turned to him, all reaching for wierd pouches on their legs.

"Who are you?!" The girl demanded, having not noticed him earlier.

"Sasuke. A friend of Hinata's. What's going on?" He answered, and all of the kids stood up straighter, letting their hands fall.

"Hinata-Hime put the area on High Alert earlier, but just now Konohamaru noticed that something was off. We don't know what's happening; we were just on our way to find out." The brown-haired boy noticed, tugging at his collar a little bit out of nerves. Now that the atmosphere was pointed out to him, it was a little hard to miss. Sasuke's eyebrows shot into his hairline at this bit of news. Hinata-Hime? High Alert? What now? All other questions were put to end, however, when a piercing scream rang out over the neighborhood. The kids looked at eachother in horror.

"Was that..?" The girl started, and Konohamaru nodded fearfully.

"Hanabi."

End of Chapter---

Hey guys... Took a bit, but I finally got a chapter up. I hope you like it! It's finally getting to the exciting part, huh? Reviews make me update faster! Ja ne!

~Nina